The Democratic National Committee has announced what candidates will need to do to qualify for the Feb. 19 debate in Las Vegas—and it’s a big change. Where earlier debates have included a donor threshold as well as polling threshold, the DNC is now abandoning the donor threshold and allowing in candidates who’ve met increased polling markers or have earned a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Iowa or New Hampshire.
What’s really striking about the new requirements is that they give Michael Bloomberg a clear path to buying his way in. Bloomberg has been left out of the debates because he’s not taking campaign contributions, but his carpet-bombing of the airwaves has boosted him in the polls.
In addition to the New Hampshire or Iowa delegate qualification path, candidates can qualify for the Las Vegas debate by getting at least 10% in four polls or 12% in two polls from Nevada or South Carolina. So far, just former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have qualified. (Which sounds about right.)
“Now that the grassroots support is actually captured in real voting, the criteria will no longer require a donor threshold,” a DNC spokesperson said. “The donor threshold was appropriate for the opening stages of the race, when candidates were building their organizations, and there were no metrics available outside of polling to distinguish those making progress from those who weren’t.” Except that Bloomberg can still buy his way to inflated polling, as we’ve seen recently—even as he isn’t competing in the “real voting” in Iowa or New Hampshire.